At an undetermined date in the 11th century, the lords of Trémouille, Audebert and his wife, donated the site of Villesalem to the hermits of Fontgombault (Indre). Around 1089, the hermits Geoffroy and Bertrand arrived from Fontgombault, which in 1091 would formally become a monastery.
In 1109, probably at the initiative of the hermits and without the involvement of Fontgombault, this nascent monastery was granted to the Order of Fontevraud, which sent its first nuns there while also providing it with an endowment. Hersenda of Champagne, the first prioress of Fontevraud (Maine-et-Loire), oversaw the transfer of the house, whose first prioress was Theburgis. Upon Audebert’s death, he was buried in the church of Villesalem as its founder. In 1119, a papal bull from Calixtus II confirmed the Priory of Villesalem as one of Fontevraud’s possessions. Records indicate that the priory fell into ruin after the Hundred Years’ War in 1369.
By the 16th century, the site was virtually without a community, with only one monk remaining, and shortly thereafter it suffered during the Wars of Religion. In the mid-17th century it was restored with a new Fontevraud community and new buildings were erected; monastic life continued until the Revolution, when in 1791 the site was sold and converted into a farm. The priory church, essentially Romanesque, has three naves, a transept, and a chevet with three apses. Its Romanesque sculptural decoration is noteworthy, especially on the exterior.
Photo by Janséniste, on Wikimedia
Photo by Janséniste, on Wikimedia
Church floor plan
Published in L’église de Villesalem (1952)
West facade
Illustration from Notice historique sur l'ancien prieuré de Villesalem (1869)
North portal
Illustration from Notice historique sur l'ancien prieuré de Villesalem (1869)
- BASCHER, Jacques de (1987). Villesalem. L'ermitage fontgombaldien et les origines du prieuré fontevriste. Revue Mabillon. Ligugé: Abbaye Saint-Martin
- BEAUNIER, Dom (1910). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France. Vol. 3: Auch, Bordeaux. Abbaye de Ligugé
- BERTRAND, Véronique; i altres (s.d.). Le prieuré de Villesalem à Journet. Communauté de communes Vienne & Gartempe
- FAVREAU, Robert (1975). Le prieuré de Villesalem à la fin du XVe et au début du XVΙe siècle. Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de l'Ouest, vol. XIII-3
- GOUDON DE LALANDE, Jules (1869). Notice historique sur l'ancien prieuré de Villesalem. Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest. Poitiers / Paris: Derache
- HUGOT DE COLLART, J. (1965). La mise en valeur du prieuré de Villesalem. Sites et monuments, núm. 30
- LABANDE-MAILFERT, Yvonne (1957). Poitou roman. La nuit des temps, 5. Zodiaque
- SALET, Francis (1952). L’église de Villesalem. Congrès archéologique de France, 109 ss. Poitiers. Société française d'archéologie
Villesalem belongs to the commune of Journet; the priory is located in an isolated area to the east of Poitiers